


A Head Full of Rocks and a Belly Full of Bees

by ForNought



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Fighting, First Meeting, Hopeless romanticism, M/M, Squabbling, Very Bad Flirting, defacing library property, minor language
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-22
Updated: 2016-09-22
Packaged: 2018-08-16 16:44:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,924
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8109916
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ForNought/pseuds/ForNought
Summary: Katsumichi had always been told that he would know when he fell in love - it would be as obvious as a feeling that he was meant to be with someone. The first time he is certain he feels that, he is surrounded by bickering team mates who might make him seem off-putting. But he somehow ruins it all himself anyway.





	

 

Having Bobata walk right into his back and nearly shove him over didn’t break the spell at all. Katsumichi wasn’t even sure that Bobata was apologising, because he more often than not would sarcastically blame the other person. In this case, it _was_ Katsumichi’s fault.

There were a pair of girls having a gravity-defying picnic on the slope leading down to the river. There were a few clusters of children doing handstands and cartwheels. But he still couldn’t take his eyes off the guy sitting on the bench further down the path. He was reading a book, the cover folded right over to break the spine. It seemed an odd thing for the late morning.

“We know him, don’t we?” Katsumichi asked quietly.

“Hmm? Where?” Of course Futamata would be the first to get involved and start peering over Katsumichi’s shoulder. It took a minor squabble that involved pointing and being jabbed in the ribs, but eventually Futamata was paying attention to the right person. “Are you really sure you weren’t talking about the old guy on that bench? He looks a bit like my great-aunt’s boyfriend.”

“How the hell would I know your great-aunt’s boyfriend?”

Futamata shrugged and smiled. “What do you think, Jiri; is that the man who does your eyebrows or something?”

Numajiri kicked sharply at Futamata’s thigh. “It’s Terushima and Higashi who go to get their eyebrows done.”

It was true that Katsumichi did sometimes did go to his cousin’s salon to get his eyebrows shaped, but it was because Terushima was too embarrassed to go alone so they had to schedule appointments together. He wasn’t going to get petty and try to defend himself, not while Futamata and Jiri were getting into more of a physical altercation than he wanted to be involved in.

Iizaka placed a hand on Katsumichi’s shoulder. “Do you have an idea where you know him from?”

That was a surprise. Katsumichi was expecting him to brag about shaping his eyebrows himself. He had already prepared a comeback about the time in middle school when Iizaka was walking around with tramlines in his brows. He’d have to save that for next time. He shrugged.

“I just have this really strong feeling that I know him.”

“Maybe he plays volleyball,” Iizaka suggested quietly.

“Kill him!” Futamata yelled. Bobata had his arms across Futamata’s chest as he tried to drag him from Numajiri’s shoulders. Katsumichi wasn’t sure whether Futamata intended to kill the stranger with the book, or Numajiri, but it made him sigh.

“Why do we hang around with these losers? How about me and you get rid of the rest of them and start a new team of cool, impressive guys?”

“We can bring Tsucchi too, right?”

“Of course, he’s the only one of us who is respectable enough to have a job,” Katsumichi grinned. Then he remembered why they were out in the first place. “Ah, don’t we need to get wiener bread for Terushima?”

“I think Futamata said that because he was sick of listening to him crying. He’s trying to get rid of Terushima without Bobata finding out.” Iizaka looked thoughtful for a moment and added, “It’s risky. Just because Bobata and Futamata are in the same class, it doesn’t mean they are more loyal to one another than Bobata and Terushima.”

Katsumichi blinked. “Are you serious? That sounds a bit…” Extreme, strange, underhanded, intense… It sounded a bit much for a high school volleyball team.

Iizaka shrugged and then grinned. “I don’t know. But I’d put money on Futamata being an evil–”

Bobata had succeeded in tearing Futamata away from Numajiri – who was squatting on the floor with his head in his hands, probably in denial about the fact that Futamata had actually torn the seam at his shoulder – but he had been too late, too exhausted from his minor victory, to stop Futamata leaping at Iizaka with a yell.

Katsumichi wasn’t sure about Futamata being evil. Maybe dangerously unpredictable.

Unlike the parents out with their young children, and the teenage girls arm in arm with each other, the guy on the bench hadn’t so much as glanced up from his book. Katsumichi was still safe. He stepped away from his friends and hoped Iizaka understood the apology in his eyes as he did so.

He was casual and cool, just like Futamata always told him he was, as he strode along the path and sat beside the guy that he may or may not have known.

“Good morning.”

The guy actually glanced at his watch before he answered. “Good morning. Can I help you?”

Katsumichi’s mind was blank. He only had one thing to say in his mind and it was stupid. It was a stupid, idiotic thing to say but he couldn’t think of an alternative. He tried! He really did! But the longer he sat here gormlessly staring at the guy, the stupider he was going to sound. So he said it, because there was nothing else for it.

“I don’t mean to alarm you, but I think I’m in love with you.”

“Hmm.”

Of course the guy was sceptical. Katsumichi was impressed with how minimal the reaction was. Barely a scoff as he returned to looking at the book in his hands. Katsumichi was the worst. He was an idiot. Stupid! He had no idea what was wrong with him.  

“My name is Higashiyama Katsumichi,” he said, because it sounded a bit less stupid than the last thing he had said. “It’s nice to meet you.”

“Kawanishi Taichi.”

“You’re very good looking, Kawanishi-kun.”

Kawanishi looked up at this. “Thank you.” Then, “Are those your friends?”

Kawanishi was staring back along the path, right at the squabbling teenagers who were starting to make a scene. Katsumichi didn’t know what to say because those were his friends, but he didn’t know what reaction admitting the fact would garner. He stayed silent for a moment longer, long enough for Kawanishi to actually look at him. And then Bobata, the bastard, yelled, “Higashi, come on!”

“Yes, those are my friends.”

Kawanishi seemed amused by this, if the sharp exhale through his nose was anything to go by. He closed his book, the cover curling back on itself without being held in place, and he sat up straighter. “It’s fine. You can tell them you fulfilled your penalty or whatever this is.”

“What?”

Kawanishi made a small gesture with his hand and a small girl dragged a slightly smaller boy along to stand in front of Kawanishi. In the hand that wasn’t steering the boy, she held a yoyo which she wordlessly thrust in Kawanishi’s face.

“You can show me when we get home,” he assured her quietly. He glanced to the boy, “Are you ready to go?”

“Kawanishi-kun, what do you mean?” Katsumichi asked.

Kawanishi and the boy both looked to Katsumichi. Kawanishi lightly tapped the boy on the cheek before he stood. “Your friends are waiting for you, Higashiyama-kun.”

“It’s not a penalty, I really do love you.”

The boy looked up at Kawanishi with apparent disappointment. “Aniki.”

Katsumichi jumped up, feeling a bit frantic now. “Kawanishi-kun, I know I sound stupid, but I mean it. I really like you.”

“You don’t know me.”

“I want to get to know you better,” Katsumichi said. The girl kept glancing up at him and he couldn’t dampen the heat in his face.

“Will you leave me alone if I give you my contact information?”

Ah, this wasn’t quite right. It wasn’t that Katsumichi wanted to _bother_ Kawanishi, but he felt compelled to speak to him. This was just like what his parents had told him about how they met. His mum had a feeling and spoke to a young man who she ended up married to with a baby. Katsumichi usually glossed over the part about how they were divorced now because they were still friends. It just mattered that at one point they had been madly in love and the reason they had got together was something as inane as a feeling.

But maybe this wasn’t the same. The accounts his parents told him differed somewhat, but the basics were the same. Both of them said they came together easily. They both just knew it should happen. If the feeling wasn’t mutual, perhaps Kawanishi wasn’t some great love to be carried in Katsumichi’s heart forever.

Even if this wasn’t the life-changing love he had been longing for, it certainly felt like it. Whether they were meant to be or not, Katsumichi would rather not be a bother. He just wanted to clear up the misunderstanding.

“I’m not–”

“It’s fine,” Kawanishi said with a soft smile. He shook off the boy’s hand and slipped his phone from his pocket. Katsumichi blinked at the outstretched smartphone dumbly. This was unexpected and didn’t make sense considering the marked disinterest from moments ago. “If you put your number in my phone I will send you a message. I want you to let me know how your friends react to you completing your penalty.”

Katsumichi took the phone and quickly typed in his number and passed it back. “It’s not a penalty. I’m being serious.”

Even more confusing was Kawanishi maybe winking at him. Katsumichi hesitated for long enough for Kawanishi to walk away with the children. It was all very strange. It was strange enough for Katsumichi to keep watching until he was out of sight. And then a glance to the bench and the book remained. He picked it up, a bit annoyed that Kawanishi had left it behind at all. The cover was near perpendicular to the rest of the book as it defied gravity, revealing a library checkout card.

“Higashi!”

Katsumichi jumped at the sound. He saw that everybody else had stopped squabbling for long enough to regroup and pretend that they were annoyed with him. Book in hand, he jogged over to rejoin them. If they ever did buy wiener bread to mend Terushima’s broken heart, Katsumichi had a feeling that he would be footing the bill.  

“What’s that?” Futamata asked, squinting suspiciously. The only indication that he had exerted himself at all today was a very faint pinkness in his cheeks. Iizaka, Bobata, and Numajiri had all come off looking much worse for wear.

Katsumichi thought it best to give it up quickly in order to evade an attack. “It’s a library book. Kawanishi-kun left it.”

“Did you know him?” Iizaka asked as Futamata snatched the book from Katsumichi’s hands.

“It’s hard to explain.”

“So, no, you didn’t know him. You were just being a creep,” Numajiri surmised sharply.

“I wasn’t being a creep!” Katsumichi denied vehemently, though it was in fact the case.

Futamata gave a low whistle and waved his hands in the air between them all. “Higashi’s bagged himself a rich boy.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Property of the Library of Shiratorizawa Academy,” Futamata read. “It was checked out two days ago.”

Katsumichi had been more bothered about another part of Futamata’s proclamation. Numajiri seemed to sense this and just shrugged while Futamata and Iizaka speculated what jobs Kawanishi’s parents held.

“I bet they’re astronauts,” Numajiri said loudly.

Bobata guffawed hard enough that he had to hold his stomach as though it would burst open.

“Jiri,” Futamata said. It was similar in disappointment to the way Kawanishi’s younger brother had spoken to him. Futamata shook his head and solemnly handed the library book back to Katsumichi. “Your pretty head really is full of rocks, isn’t it?”

**Author's Note:**

> I just feel this a lot? 
> 
> This is how Kawanishi and Higashiyama first met before Close Your Eyes. I feel a bit bad for Terushima and Tsuchiyu missing out on appearances.


End file.
